The long road to a dream

On March 3, 2026, Stephen Kallarakkal, a native of Angamaly, set off across the length and breadth of Kerala with a single goal: Promoting football among students.

Over the next 100 days he covered nearly 13,000km, enough distance, travelled in a straight line, to have reached New Jersey, one of the host cities of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Kallarakkal never made it to New Jersey, or to any World Cup venue. But his real destination is further away still, a dream of an Indian team, built largely of Malayali players, taking the field at a World Cup someday. That vision is what has kept him on the road for years.

“I started the Football Countdown to promote football among students and send a message against drug abuse,” Kallarakkal says. Launched 100 days before the World Cup kicked off, the initiative took him to colleges, schools and football academies across the state. Each visit began with a short talk on the institution’s own football history, followed by a pledge against drug abuse.

“Let football be your obsession, not drugs,” is the line he repeats at every stop. “We started the Football Countdown against the backdrop of drug abuse spreading among the youth like cancer.”

The sessions have drawn in experienced players, including some who now represent the state and the country.

Kallarakkal credits his wife Molly and daughters Sarah and Tresa for backing the mission fully. Around four years ago, he took up a related project, recording the memory of Kerala football’s past generation before it fades.

“I decided to meet and interview various experienced footballers,” he says. Molly travels with him on these trips, filming the conversations for a YouTube series meant to introduce younger fans to the sport’s earlier era.

So far, he has interviewed close to 200 veterans, among them CC Jacob, MM Jacob, TA Jaffer, CV Pappachan, U Sharafali, Kurikas Mathew and Tobias, names associated with Kerala football’s golden years.

Kallarakkal is clear that talent isn’t the state’s problem. “We have a lot of talent around us. We need an agency or a system to nurture them,” he says, pointing out that many aspiring players come from poor families who can’t afford academy fees.

He contrasts this with Odisha, where the govt built an Asian Games Village costing Rs 2,000 crore that has since grown into a multi-sport talent hub, against Kerala’s own sports department, which he says has spent Rs 1,500 crore over the last decade with little to show for it. The talent, as Kallarakkal puts it, is already here. What’s missing is the vision, and the administrators willing to act on it.

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